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No one touched them with impunity………

Mention in dispatches London Gazette 11 October 1982. For Bravery at Mount Tumbledown.

SAM 82 Award groups.

“The original recommendation states:

‘On the night of 13-14 June 1982, on the Island of East Falkland, the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards attacked well entrenched enemy positions on the craggy ridge feature of Tumbledown Mountain, seven kilometres to the west of Port Stanley.

During the assault Lance-Sergeant McGuinness was commanding the leading section of his company, when they came under accurate sniper fire. Two men were wounded. With great coolness and without regard for his own safety, he moved amongst his men encouraging and steadying them. He personally fired ten anti-tank rockets at the enemy. That done, he and his men successfully overran the enemy position.

For his courageous action under fire and his outstanding leadership, Lance-Sergeant McGuinness is strongly recommended for Mention in Despatches.’

Thomas McGuinness, who enlisted in the Scots Guards in November 1977, was serving as Section Commander of No. 13 Platoon, ‘G’ Company, Left Flank, during the attack on Tumbledown in May 1982, and as such was in the thick of the action, his section suffering five casualties. In Palmer’s Above and Beyond, he is credited with being ‘personally responsible for destroying three Argentine sangars during the three hours that ‘G’ Company were pinned down’, using anti-tank rockets as well as phosphorous grenades.

Later, in his own words, “We definitely took them by surprise and could see them dodging about, trying to get into cover. This allowed the rest of the company to go forward; we could see them and kept moving our fire ahead of them”, thus enabling Major John Kiszely to lead 14 and 15 Platoons on to their final objective. Here, again, McGuinness lent valuable support:

‘When the salvo came 14 Platoon charged the enemy positions with 15 Platoon to the rear. 13 Platoon fired 66mm. rockets, once again Lance-Sergeant McGuinness aiming them by eye, machine-guns and rifles on to the Argentine positions, suppressing their fire and confusing them enough to allow other Platoons to reach the enemy. 14 and 15 Platoons used rifles, grenades and bayonets to clear the position.’”

I think not enough is done to remember the bravery of these men. The above citation was actually written up for a DCM, but it was downgraded to an MID. Tumbledown and Goose Green are probably the two most noted actions of three that occurred during the war, the other being the bombing of the HMS Sir Galahad.